Mediaboss Marketing

On March 25, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted final approval to a $1.1 million class action settlement resolving claims that the operators of two video social networking apps (defendants) surreptitiously tracked, collected, and disclosed the personally identifiable information and/or viewing data of children under the age of 13, without parental consent in violation of federal and California privacy law. Specifically, plaintiffs asserted violations of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), the California constitutional right to privacy, the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA), and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Businesses Practices Act. Defendants countered that plaintiffs state-law claims were preempted by the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act, and that, furthermore, the alleged conduct is not within the scope of VPPA or the cited state consumer protection laws and does not amount to a common law invasion of privacy or a violation of Plaintiffs rights under the California Constitution. Moreover, defendants argued that plaintiffs could not recover actual damages. According to plaintiffs supplemental motion for final approval, following months-long negotiations, the parties agreed to settle the action on a class-wide basis.

The settlement requires defendants to pay $1.1 million into a non-reversionary settlement fund, to be dispersed pro rata to class members (anyone in the U.S. who, prior to the settlements effective date and while under the age of 13, registered for or used the apps) who submit a valid claim after the payment of settlement administration expenses, taxes, fees, and service awards. The courts order, however, declined to award an objectors counsel any attorneys fees for his efforts to negotiate modified relief because the agreement was negotiated in a separate proceeding in related multidistrict litigation. The court also denied plaintiffs motion for sanctions against the objectors law firm.

Continue reading here:
Social networking apps settle claims related to the collection of minors' data for $1.1 million - Lexology